In 2013 the Russian Parliament passed a law banning what it called “propaganda of homosexuality.” It was part of a package of new laws and regulations that aimed at preventing Russia from succumbing to the widespread decadence and immorality widely tolerated by so-called western “democracies.”
The law simply made explicit the Russian Nationalist belief that the West aimed to destroy Russia by destroying the traditional family. To win support for their campaign, Russian Nationalists financed a global campaign to recruit sympathetic Christian nationalists around the globe.
“Two days after the law was passed, the parliamentary committees on the family and on foreign relations held a joint session attended by five foreign guests. Brian S. Brown, head of the National Organization for Marriage, formed a few years earlier to pass legislation against same-sex marriage in California, and French National Front activist Aymeric Chauprade were among them” (Gessen, The Future is History, 406-407). To wild applause, Chauprade addressed the gathering:
You must understand that patriots of countries the world over, those committed to protecting the independence of their nations and the foundations of our civilization, are looking to Moscow. It is with great hope that they are looking to Russia, which has taken a stand against the legalization, the public legalization of homosexuality, against the interference of nihilistic nongovernmental organizations which are manipulated by American secret services, and against the adoption of children by homosexual couples. Ladies and gentlemen, members of parliament, Russia has become the hope of the entire world. . . . Long live the European Christian civilization! Long live Russia! Long live France!
Gessen, The Future is History, 407.
To which some days later Vladimir Putin added:
Russia is facing a serious challenge to its identity. This issue has aspects of both morality and foreign policy. We can see many EuroAtlantic countries rejecting their own roots, including Christian values, which form the foundation of Western civilization. They reject their own moral foundations as well as all traditional identities: national, cultural, religious, and even gender. They pursue policies that place large families on an equal footing with same-sex partnerships, and faith in god with satan worship. An excess of political correctness has led to the point that there is talk of registering political parties that promote pedophilia. In many European countries people are ashamed and frightened to talk about their religious affiliation. . . . And this is the model that is being aggressively forced onto the entire world. I am convinced that this is the road to degradation and primitivization, a deep demographic and moral crisis.
Gessen, The Future is History, 408-409.
Russia’s Christian Nationalists are the leading funders of the World Congress of Families, which the Southern Poverty Law Center has designated a hate group, but which Christian nationalists laud as a bulwark for family values.
Christian nationalists love Putin because Putin speaks their language — the language of hate, of anti-democracy, and opposition to republican values. If Republicans in Congress are having a hard time opposing Putin and Putin’s Russia it is because, at heart, they hope that Putin wins.
Think about that. Republicans want Russia to win.